The girl behind Adorn.ie

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I have thought about writing this post for a long time now and finally I have got around to it. I’ve lots of people reading my blog and following me on social media so I thought it might be nice to actually tell you a little bit about myself. Just so you have an idea of who I am and who is actually writing the blog posts on www.adorn.ie.

So my name is Anita. I am 32 years old and from Dublin. I come from a small family, only one brother. Growing up my parents were very supportive and loving. We have a really great relationship and one I most definitely cherish. They are two people I look up to and admire so much. We always have great fun together too. I would say they are more my friends than my parents to be honest. I know I am a very lucky girl to have them in my life.

When I left school I studied fashion design. I learnt lots about the industry but I just felt it wasn’t for me. Eventually I fell into studying accountancy. I still cannot understand why I ever studied this. It was never my intention lol. Anyway 8 years passed and I am a qualified accountant the last 4+years. This is my day job and I feel I am quiet successful at it. To be honest, I work for a decent company and they are very supportive. However,my real love is and always was beauty! From a very young age I have been obsessed with anything to do with beauty. Not even the vanity end of it but more so how it makes you feel and how relaxing and therapeutic it can be.

One year, while on my summer holidays from studying accountancy I did a makeup course at Makeup Forever Clarendon street . I learnt so much and really found something that I adored and excelled at .

After I completed the makeup course I became even more addicted to the industry and literally consumed myself in it. I practiced over and over again and did my friends and family’s makeup simply just because I loved it. However, I am genuinely my biggest critic and never feel like I am good enough at what I do (even still to this day) so I didn’t have the confidence to work in it professionally. Instead I decided to keep doing courses to try gain more experience and learn new techniques. To be honest, all the courses in the world will not fix the problem if the issue is believing in yourself. The only thing that sorts this is just putting yourself out there and feeling the fear but doing it anyway!!

I realised after doing the makeup courses that the beauty industry had my heart and I knew I needed to learn new things. So I decided to do a gel nail course. I did it in a really terrible place and paid a small fortune to do it (I best not name them lol). I left the course not knowing much and feeling like I could not become a nail tech.

When I look back I realise it was actually the training that was lacking and not necessarily my skills. I then went on to do another course where I was actually trained really well and my skills improved vastly. Anyway, time passed and my love for the nail industry grew and grew. I would actually say I have an obsession!! My skills improved massively in a short space of time, so much so that I became a nail educator and began to run my own courses.

Teaching is my absolute passion. I love nothing more than helping people gain new skills and feel good about themselves because they achieved something that they didn’t feel they could in the beginning. I’ve been there and still doubt myself every day but I love to know that I can help someone else not feel that way and help them believe in themselves.

On the back of all of the above, my friends and family and sometimes even strangers always asked for my advice when it comes to beauty. With the encouragement of friends and out of pure passion for the industry I decided to start a blog. It wasn’t very good to be honest. My photography skills and equipment were lacking big time so the quality wasn’t great but it was a start. The website is actually still live if you fancy a laugh check it out here.

Anyway time passed and I wanted to make a bigger and better blog. I seen my brother’s girlfriend had a similar passion and I asked her to join forces with me and we decided to make Chatterbox.ie. This lasted for around 1 year when we decided to start our own blogs and so Adorn.ie was formed.  I had a very clear vision of what I wanted Adorn.ie to be. The best thing is, I can finally see it all starting to come together. Particularly now with the new website.

My idea for the blog was never just about trying products and reviewing them. In my opinion it is important for the writer of a blog to have lots of knowledge and expertise. I found it very difficult not to know exactly why a product worked or didn’t work and why one ingredient worked better than another. This was a struggle for me right from day one and I never felt fully happy with my knowledge.

With this in mind I started to look at beauty therapy courses. I felt if I did this then I would gain this knowledge that I longed for and also learn some new things along the way. So I signed up for the CIBTAC part time beauticians course in Coogan Bergin. This course gave me lots of knowledge and confidence to go forth with Adorn.ie on a whole new level!!

It sounds like all I do is study and work right? Yep, that pretty much sums me up. From a young age I have always pushed myself. I never sit easy and I love nothing more than learning new things. I’m definitely not afraid of early mornings, long days and working for my goals.

However, this comes with a cost. There have been times in my life when I have caused myself to become very ill from over working and stressing myself out. To the point that a few years ago I ended up in hospital in my late 20’s with stroke symptoms and I was out of work for weeks and weeks. My body just totally gave in! I would like to say I slowed down since then but to be honest I am not sure if I can actually do that! I think I take after my Mam for that.

In the last few months I have started to suffer with migraine and I know that tiredness and stress can bring this on. For this reason I have really started to be more conscious of my body and what it needs. I exercise regularly, eat as healthy as possible and try not to get as stressed or as worked up as I did in the past. This can be challenging at times of course!!

So what about the future? Although I have passion for beauty oozing from me I do think the best option is to continue in my job and in my spare time concentrate on my blog, exercising and having lots of fun. I want to start travelling a little and living my life more and do things that I didn’t get to do in my 20’s. I also want to keep up my fitness and eating healthy. This for me gives me the energy and health that I need to continue on working as much as I do. I am excited for the future and hope that I can take you all on the journey with me.

In my 20’s I grew up way too quickly. I bought a house and settled down very early and became an old soul within a year. A few years ago I took the plunge and removed myself from the situation with no hard feelings or bad words (which for me is so important). In the past I’ve stayed in situations that I was not happy in and that made me feel really bad in myself. I always want to help people and always put them first. Slowly I began to realise that this was not healthy and that I was becoming very sick from it .

I never talk about this on my blog because I don’t want people to pity me but over 2 years ago I suffered very bad with panic attacks. To the point that I thought regularly that I was going to die from the pains in my chest and the utter panic I would get myself into. I never experienced anything like this and struggled so bad.

I would like to say that I got over this phase myself but I cannot. Someone came into my life that has given me strength and love that I have never experienced before. This person, along with my parents, my best friend and a counsellor helped me realise that my mind was taking over my body and that I was actually in control of the situation. Thankfully with a lot of work I no longer suffer from these horrible things. Although I do have the occasional melt down (don’t we all) I feel I am in a better place than I have ever been. With this in mind I think this is the reason why I want to start enjoying my life and becoming fit and healthy.

I love life now and love the people that I have in my life. We all have or had poisonous people in our lives and the day that these are gone your life will change forever. I don’t regret the panic attacks. For me they were my minds way of waking me up to a bad situation and I believe if they didn’t happen then I might still be in the situation I was in which makes me feel ill at the thought of it!

I strongly believe that the word “selfishness” is misinterpreted. People, including myself spend years putting people first for fear of being labelled selfish. Infact, if we think about it putting yourself first and being happy is actually quiet selfless. It is hard work to be happy sometimes. By being happy you make others happy.You are then a much nicer person to be around and a much better support for others. I learned this the hard way. Putting yourself first sometimes is a good thing, not only for you but for everyone around you. So be happy, as much as you can be!

If I was to sum up what I want from my future it would be to love more, be happy, content, try things I fear, work hard to achieve my goals and be fit and healthy!  I think and hope this is all achievable.

OK, I need to finish this up, I am sure I have lost half of you by now. I just wanted to touch on one last thing that I feel very strongly about. My blog and my views on reviewing products!!

People that know me well know I am ridiculously honest. What you see is what you get and I genuinely struggle with “fake” people. I cannot be fake. I’ve to be myself at all times. If I feel I cannot be myself I get extremely uncomfortable. This is reflected in my blog too. I cannot lie about a product or make it sound like I adore something when I don’t. If I like something you will hear me scream it from the roof top. Likewise if I don’t like something then you will most definitely know about it too.

People have told me time and time again that this will limit my “career” as a blogger. Frankly, I don’t care. I need to stay true to myself and my readers at all times .If this is something that impacts me negatively then that is simply ok. I value honesty and would not expect my readers to settle for anything less. You get the idea. Adorn.ie is 100% honest and up front and will remain that way until the day I no longer blog (hopefully that never happens).

I am so sorry for waffling on! Yep, that’s me. I am a complete chatterbox lol!!

Thank you so much for reading this and I truly hope you have a better idea of who I am and where my blog has come from and where it will be in the near future.

Thank you all so much for your support. I am so so thankful every day for you all.

Big kisses

Anita xx